Funeral Home Worker in Wuhan: We Are Working 24/7 to Cremate Bodies

The Epoch Times ^ | February 4, 2020 | NICOLE HAO

[familyop]

Workers at crematoriums in Wuhan City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, say their workload has increased dramatically in recent days, as they constantly transfer the bodies of victims from hospitals and private homes.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, a worker described long working hours to cope with the sudden increase in bodies to be cremated.

Meanwhile, videos from workers dealing with the crisis have been circulating on social media, including one from a worker at a Wuhan funeral home who shared footage of more than 10 bodies lying on gurneys, lined up for cremation.

Some netizens also shared videos they shot within different hospitals in Wuhan, showing bodies waiting to be transferred from the hospitals to funeral homes.

Since funeral home workers don’t know for sure whether the person died from the coronavirus, they wear protective suits and masks in order to defend themselves from potential infection.

Working 24/7 Wuhan has three main funeral homes in the downtown area, which are equipped with crematoriums. While cremation is a common burial practice in China, in a notice issued on Feb. 1, China’s National Health Commission said that people who have died from the virus can’t be buried and their bodies should be cremated immediately.

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, Wuhan’s Civil Affairs Bureau designated the Hankou Funeral Home to deal with the bodies of those who were diagnosed and died of the virus, according to state-run media. In addition, the Wuchang Funeral Home and Qingshan Funeral Home were designated to attend to those who died from severe pneumonia, or who were suspected coronavirus cases and died.

A worker at a Wuhan crematorium said in a Feb. 4 interview that he and his colleagues have worked 24 hours, seven days a week since Jan. 28. He said they are exhausted, and are working without proper equipment such as body bags, protective suits, and face masks.

“Since Jan. 28, 90 percent of our employees are working 24/7 … we couldn’t go back home,” a man identified as Mr. Yun told the Chinese-language Epoch Times in a phone call. He works at the Caidian Funeral Home, one of four facilities in a suburban area of Wuhan.

“We really need more manpower,” he said.

Meanwhile, more bodies continue to arrive every day.

“We need to pick up bodies when they [hospitals, communities, or family members of the deceased] call us. Every day, we need at least 100 body bags,” he said.

His workplace is required to pick up bodies from the Wuhan Tongji Hospital, Wuhan No. 13 Hospital, the newly built Huoshenshan Hospital, and other small hospitals, as well as any residences that request its services.

Yun says he’s spoken with workers at other Wuhan funeral homes, who are also overwhelmed.

“Almost all staff at each funeral home in Wuhan are fully equipped, and all Wuhan cremation chambers are working 24 hours,” he said.

The worker said staff can only sit on their chairs and nap whenever they get a chance.

“We can’t stop because we can’t leave the bodies outside for a long time,” he said.

The staff members also lack protective gear.

“For us who transfer the bodies, we don’t eat or drink for a long time in order to preserve the protective suit, because we need to take off the protective suit whenever we eat, drink, or go to the bathroom. The protective suit can’t be worn again after being used,” he said.

Yun said other staff at the funeral home, such as the receptionists, don’t get to use protective suits.

“They wear raincoats to protect themselves,” he said.

Families Yun says he’s heartbroken to see so many bodies and to know that many family members couldn’t see their loved ones in their final moment.

“We pick up bodies from people’s houses. … Family members can’t see the body after we remove it,” he said.

According to new government regulations, funeral home staff pick up the bodies, then cremate them without notifying family members—so that the family can avoid contact with the body and potentially become infected with the virus.

“When family members come here, they can pay the cremation costs and then pick up the ashes,” Yun said.

At hospitals, family members also are prohibited from seeing the bodies.

Some of the deceased had hospital records, but many do not—because they could not receive prompt hospital treatment before their deaths or died waiting, he said.

“Those are treated as unknown reason [for cause of death],” Yun said.

Wuchang Funeral Home Guyu Lab, an independent online news outlet, interviewed a worker at the Wuchang funeral home who was asked to pick up bodies from hospitals and residences, beginning Jan. 26.

“All male staff at our funeral home are picking up and moving bodies now, and female staff are answering the phones, disinfecting the funeral home, and so on,” Huang told the news outlet in a Feb. 3 report. “We work 24 hours. … We are very tired.”

Huang said his funeral home doesn’t have the equipment to properly disinfect the facility. Workers have to reuse disposable protective suits, as there are no new ones. They wear swim goggles because they don’t have protective goggles, and must wear two layers of disposable plastic gloves because they have no rubber gloves.

“We are on the verge of collapsing. We really need help,” Huang said.

[familyop]

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[Sasparilla]

It appears fatalities are grossly underreported in China

[familyop]

Ping. More on the cremation production run.

[null and void]

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[proust]

That’s impossible! Freepers told me the mortality rate was way low.

[Bommer]

They have reported only 490 deaths. I’m sure its not the only crematorium in Wuhan. Gee I hope the Chinese leaders aren’t lieing about the real death count? \sarc

[familyop]

Yes, it looks that way.

So that's three funeral homes in the downtown area and however many in the outlying areas of the city. Wuhan is spread out over a large area.

"Wuhan’s Civil Affairs Bureau designated the Hankou Funeral Home to deal with the bodies of those who were diagnosed and died of the virus, according to state-run media. In addition, the Wuchang Funeral Home and Qingshan Funeral Home were designated to attend to those who died from severe pneumonia, or who were suspected coronavirus cases and died."

Only one of the three funeral homes is for diagnosed cases counted in statistics. There might be more than the three funeral homes out in the suburbs, so to speak.

[Deaf Smith]

The only number given, is that one location needs 100 body bags per day.

[Redcitizen]

Some people don’t want the truth.

[ncalburt]

The Chinese are still allowed into our great country .
That WH press conference did nothing ?
Its was a minor band aid on this menace.
The whole country is infected .
Why is anyone allowed from China .
We dont have the facilities to house thousands of these invaders and they lie .

[arthurus]

They are most assuredly lying.

[familyop]

He was a pharmacist and died from overwork and a heart attack.

28-year-old medical staff in China dies, allegedly after working 10 days straight battling Wuhan virus
https://mothership.sg/2020/02/doctor-overwork-die-wuhan-virus-song-yingjie/

[familyop]

Expert warns virus outbreak in HK ‘imminent’
https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1506740-20200205.htm?spTabChangeable=0

[familyop]

Chinese are barred from entry except for family members of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, who are quarantined for 14 days and under observation. Chinese government leaders complained about President Trump for that and said that it would damage relations.

Several other nations have implemented the same policy as ours.

[familyop]

This looks like a very honest and ethical news site that deserves our attention during times like these. I will probably limit future posts from The Epoch Times to reasonable excerpts.

About Us
https://www.theepochtimes.com/about-us

The Epoch Times
https://www.theepochtimes.com/

[grey_whiskers]

Ah Chu.

Sum Ting Wong.

Ho Lee Fuk.

So Long Xi.

[lightman]

Wu Flu Tru

[GOPJ]

These people need to start training their replacements... same with nuclear power plant operators. If the virus takes out half the workers both groups will stop. Untrained worker won’t be able to work the equipment.

Working people until they drop is nuts... it’s pure commie insanity.

[familyop]

Just grabbing these ammo links for when the obfuscating foreign flack arrives.

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https://www.theepochtimes.com/mcconnell-house-impeachment-articles-constitutionally-incoherent_3226873.html

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https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-presents-rush-limbaugh-presidential-medal-following-cancer-diagnosis_3227588.html

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https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-regime-tightens-control-over-flow-of-information-amid-rampant-coronavirus-outbreak_3226892.html

[Widget Jr]

Maybe not. Numbers pulled off various sources.

Wuhan's population is 11.08 million and China's annual death rate per 1000 is between 7 to 8. So Wuhan's death rate is roughly 77,560 to 88,640 per year, 210 to 240 per day.

Which means those three main funeral homes have to handle on average 70 to 80 bodies per day. To be fair, that is ignoring how many other smaller funeral homes there are. Either way, that's a lot of bodies per facility.

If these facilities were designed to operate at Wuhan's average death rate plus some growth room built into them, then any significant spike in deaths would exceed their capacity.

The article cites January 28 as the day when things picked up. The coronavirus outbreak officially started December 31, and the first death was on January 23. So that's over 400 deaths in two weeks, around 130 more deaths than average per facility, roughly 9 or 10 per day more than average.

It may be the case they are overwhelmed by the spike in the death rate and not covering it up anything. China's censorship can lead to all sorts of speculation.